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The bright-yellow emergency call boxes that line the highways and backcountry of San Diego County have dropped in use over the last two decades — from 170,511 calls in 1990 to 11,625 in 2010.

During the same time period, special tax revenue that supports them has grown to $2.6 million annually from $1.9 million, fueling a bureaucracy that has built up $12.8 million in reserves and spends its time seeking projects to enhance motorist safety in new ways.

“This has become the poster child for a government program that at one time was relevant but, as the world changed and our technology evolved, has become irrelevant,” said San Diego City Councilwoman Lorie Zapf, a board member for the call-box agency. “For years they have been floundering and looking for a justification for their existence.”

The situation could soon change. Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, R-San Diego, is preparing legislation that could force various reforms, including a possible phasing out of the program statewide.

And, for the first time in more than a decade, the local board may consider cutting off its own revenue by holding off on collection of its funding source — a $1 annual fee on vehicle registrations.

County Supervisor Bill Horn, who also serves on the board, said he supports suspending the fee until all reserves are exhausted, but only with the guarantee that motorist safety would not diminish. For now, he said, technological advances have yet to render the call boxes obsolete.

“There are places throughout our region where cellphone reception is nonexistent, and not everyone who uses our highway system owns a cellphone,” Horn said. “In times of emergency everyone needs to be able to get help.”

The agency is called the San Diego Service Authority for Freeway Emergencies or SAFE. With no changes, its administrative costs are projected to grow 10 percent over the next seven years even as it removes half of its 1,400 call boxes.

A real need

Efforts to create a regional call box system were spurred by the Jan. 21, 1985, sexual assault of a 27-year-old woman stranded on a busy stretch of Interstate 5 near downtown San Diego.

Los Angeles had a system of roadside telephones, but there was no statewide procedure for getting a new program up and running. Then-county Supervisor Leon Williams met with the late Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn and implored lawmakers to answer the call. “At that time, you would see many cars disabled on the side of the road,” Williams recalled.

In 1986, then-Sen. Bill Craven, R-Oceanside, pushed through a bill that allowed counties through the state Department of Motor Vehicles to collect the fee to install, maintain and operate call boxes.

The emergency call boxes that line the highways and backcountry of San Diego County have dropped in use over the last two decades.

The emergency call boxes that line the highways and backcountry of San Diego County have dropped in use over the last two decades.

“It was a big deal when we did it,” said then-Supervisor Susan Golding, who served on the new board with Williams. “There was just no way to be safe if your car broke down, particularly for women. I personally felt better that they were out there.”